‘But a big part of me wanted to get away from it all, get away from London. And Eddie Howe was great. Straight away he talked about the things he thought I could improve on and stuff like that and I agreed with him. And what I liked was the fact that, even when they are struggling, Bournemouth never shy away from wanting to play football.

‘Once I’d spoken to Eddie I made my mind up. There was something about him that made me feel I wanted to work with him.’

On whether he could leave Arsenal, he added: ‘I haven’t really thought about my future beyond getting a season under my belt and just trying to improve as a player.

Wilshere is unsure over his long-term Arsenal future (Picture: Getty)

‘I genuinely don’t know if I am going to end up at Arsenal or somewhere else.

‘If you’d ask me two months ago if I was going to finish my career at Arsenal then I would have said, “Yeah, of course”.

‘The fans have been great to me, the boss has been great to me. I have a lot of friends there. But sometimes that’s the way football is. Two months ago I wouldn’t have seen myself being here, but here I am. And I’m enjoying it.’